But I'll cry once I'm done coding (again) and I promise that I will make an even better looking skin for your viewing pleasure!

However, I do need you guys to give me the green light to undertake re-skinning (again) like Parkster did some months back. Also, you will have to agree on a now limited "top"-bar and other odd details. So, unless you find this skin horrible (like 2 people voted) and tell me what is wrong, I will attempt to recreate what already exists but with the new layout in mind.

Finally, we'll have to agree on a place where we can re establish a shoutbox... In the future, perhaps expert coders will develop a third-party shoutbox but for the moment we'll have to make do with what we got... That is: nothing. I suggest some sort of spotlighted forum topic with a templated interface, but that is yet to be debated...

Personally, I think a lack of shoutbox has an easy solution: IRC! We'll just have to encourage people to start using it again.Planted by Max at Tuesday, 31-03-2015 20:43 (UTC)

The only problem I've had with the new skin is that it got rid of the quick category edits (unless that was something else). Other than that, I'm okay with it.

@Max - The shoutbox is more user friendly and it's on the front page for easy access. IRC isn't as easy to access and most people are not familiar with the commands that are in the program. KoenigseggCCXRBurnopediaAdmin21:17, October 1, 2010 (UTC)

I hate that all of the work you put into the skin went to waste. But, if you want to work on the replacement, that would be great. I don't think we need a shoutbox replacement. We should just use forum threads and talk pages like most wikis do.Exlonox posted this at 21:24, October 1, 2010 (UTC)

There's a few disadvantages when looking at IRC vs. Shoutbox. Shoutbox persists. IRC is instant and gone. Shoutbox is like a bulletin board. You post your note and walk away while others come and read your note and post their own. IRC doesn't have that luxury. The closest thing to that would be channel memos using MemoServ on the IRC and that would require EVERYONE to be added to the access list of the channel. This means that everyone would have to go onto IRC and create a username similar to here and be added (which requires an admin on IRC at the same time) to the channels' access list. Once this is finally done, channel memos would have to be retrieved within a timely manner requiring users to constantly check IRC for such memos.

The shoutbox was simple, easy and efficient. Users could come here without an account and see what others talk about. Users could also easily reply to messages put in there regardless of access to the wikia. Not only that, but the messages never disappear and can be seen at anytime by anyone.

I would propose an admin notice board like other wikis I have seen have. Where users and admins alike can post to it for admin duty purposes. This would mostly be an anti-spam/vandalism board mostly. Anything else really doesn't fall into the scope of a formidable shoutbox. Talk pages are talk pages... forums are forums... they both require users to navigate to other parts of the wiki to view/edit/add information. I am hoping what Seeks said elsewhere is possible and someone codes a .js alternative to the shoutbox for use with the new skin and we could implement that here as an alternative. —RappytalkBurnopediaAdmin• 23:05, October 1, 2010 (UTC)

The notice board sounds like a good idea, we could insert it side by side next to the Burning Reports on the main page...

Ex, don't worry nothing is going to waste. We still have the assets and now that I know more about CSS I should be able to make an even better skin than what it is right now.

Also, please start drafting a top-menu so we can swiftly and rapidly reset the skin...Inserted this message into the main mixdown at 14:28, October 2, 2010 (UTC).

The top menu sucks. You have space for 7 links; 4 of them can be drop downs. Drop downs cannot have sub-menus. Our current side-bar is not replicable without having a huge drop down menu for the sub menus as well. I am very displeased by the restrictions we have to deal with. —RappytalkBurnopediaAdmin• 17:05, October 2, 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm, right now I can only think of a sort of admin bulletin notification... If an admin has something to say, perhaps post it somewhere and put a notification in the N3... (shoutbox recreation attempt)Inserted this message into the main mixdown at 20:18, October 2, 2010 (UTC).

Affiliates (links to Burnout Wiki:Affiliates, page that I will create)

Burnout Paradise

DLC

Vehicles

Events

Locations

Discovery

Awards

Media

More games... (I think that each of these should link to Portal:--game--)

Burnout

Burnout 2: Point of Impact

Burnout 3: Takedown

Burnout Legends

Burnout Revenge

Burnout Dominator

Burnout 6 (TBA)

Burnout gameplay

Boost

Driving Skills

Stunts

Takedown

Critical Damage

Wrong Way

Wrecking

However, for the moment the New Skin is not yet live and there is no page where we can set it up, I'm still hoping that it will be the same format as the previous though... I sure it I'll be easy either way.Inserted this message into the main mixdown at 21:29, October 2, 2010 (UTC).

Research has yielded important details: we will be able to add this new nav menu at MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation. Limits are 4 across, 7 down.Inserted this message into the main mixdown at 21:52, October 2, 2010 (UTC).

Correction... as I said above. "The top menu sucks. You have space for 7 links; 4 of them can be drop downs. Drop downs cannot have sub-menus." 7 headers, 4 of which can be drop downs. —RappytalkBurnopediaAdmin• 00:47, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

Update Note:According to Wikia, we might not be able to modify the layout extensively due to the fact that they are rebuilding the CSS system... MediaWiki:Wikia.css will be the unique stylesheet for the whole wiki and it might not be able to have the same level of control over the layout.Inserted this message into the main mixdown at 21:55, October 2, 2010 (UTC).

All that you removed cannot be removed or edited... so that was all for naught. You cannot remove the right-hand sidebar, picture attributation or the header + icon. Back to the drawing board, C_ee_X. —RappytalkBurnopediaAdmin• 00:47, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

It's enough to make a community want to move elsewhere. @Seeks I must have misread what Rappy said the limits for the menu were. Your layout looks good. I thought the Edit Bay/Junkyard would be a place people who edit Burnopedia can go to guide them along and encourage constructive edits. It would be an expansion of what is going on now in the "Articles" section of the sidebar.Exlonox posted this at 03:23, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

I hope we won't have to do so... Actually I'm more frightened by the hypothetical unknown than by the fact that we will need to readapt to a new skin. Not having control over the whole layout really is a bummer, I'm certain that the Theme Designer is one childish editor with very limited options (such as: color *full stop*). So we should now forget about the layout I'm presenting here, since it's going to be impossible to make.

Concerning the Menu, I like the idea of the Edit Bay, although the name sounds a bit confusing to me (which is why I proposed Junkyard). The link could point to Burnout Wiki:xxx and have a detailed list of things to do. I see it as a remake of "99 to go", the namespace will better suit it and naturally the title was out of date. ;-)

Should I start designing that page? Or would you rather do it?

Also, the MP will have to be rethought (again) because the width is lowered somewhat drastically... Help will should be moved to a Burnout Wiki: page, the POTW will be replaced by Wikia's slideshow. For the rest, I will work on tabbing the bigger tables together (like Encyclopedia). There will be a "news" table with a tab showing News templates and another showing the clan header. The second table will be tabbed too, one for forums and the other for the poll.

Something like that...

Inserted this message into the main mixdown at 08:38, October 3, 2010 (UTC).

The "Helping Out" section should be merged with the edit bay. I think we should start a thread where people can suggest ideas (and names) for the edit bay before we create it.Exlonox posted this at 14:14, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

I feel like a new project is going to be started... ;-)Inserted this message into the main mixdown at 20:02, October 3, 2010 (UTC).

The MP will simply be a 100% table on top of another... Not much variety to be had there anymore. Which really sucks because my MP design on Aion will have to be scraped too and completely redesigned. I really wish I was granted for the beta. I could have already started this design change before release. —RappytalkBurnopediaAdmin• 20:52, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

Bummer. I thought N3 was awesome. We should be glad NFS is coming out this fall and not a new Burnout. Now we have time to reclaim the site before the next Burnout release.Exlonox posted this at 21:33, October 6, 2010 (UTC)

I changed the theme a little until someone starts working on a better one. This one seems "ok" for now. Better than the white that no one that frequents here is accustom to. —RappytalkBurnopediaAdmin• 23:29, October 6, 2010 (UTC)